Derby Talk

Derby Talk is a forum for Pinewood Derby, Awana Grand Prix, Kub Kar Rally, Shape N Race Derby, Space Derby, Raingutter Regatta and other similar races where a child and an adult work together to create a race vehicle and a lot of fun and memories

Currently near the end of our build and we are wondering about car "stance". Last year we built a car with sides that curved inwards near the wheels to reduce friction. This years build didn't allow for that. The sides are flat and that got us thinking. What if we were to extend the width to avoid wheel rub on the body. What we did was add half-disks (about the thickness of a quarter) to each wheel area and filed out the axel slot. My question is....will this new wider stance improve our car? Will it give it more stability in turn giving it better performance or will the additional width make it "waver" more as it goes down the track? Currently we are at the max width for the car. I will say, it does give it a more aggressive appearance.

The rear wheels should never touch the wood body. You want them to migrate to the axle heads when the car is rolled forward or rearward. I have been using 1 1/2 degrees of Negative Cant on the rears which gives me the ability to remove any toe, either in or out. The 1 1/2 degree cant just barely allows the wheels to ride on the inside edge while keeping the wheel to appear being straight up and down. If you are allowed a 3 wheeler, then set the DOM (Dominant Front Wheel) with 1 1/2 degrees of Positive cant and toe in and let the wheel ride against the body, or put a couple of coats of thick finger nail polish on the wood and the hub will ride on a hard, slick surface. You will need to narrow the body of the car behind the DOM 1/16" and that set-up should make the car go as fast as it's going to go. Even if you are going to make it a straight runner the set up will allow you to adjust it to roll straight.

Hi Speedster...I'll get a pic of the car up soon. Thanks for the info on cant. The fingernail polish trick will help. We removed the glued-on wooded spacers from the car, bringing it back to standard wheel base so it shouldn't wonder around on the track as much as it did.